Theme Essay – The Freedom Writers Diary

Every story has a specific theme. Theme is the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person’s thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic.The most significant theme in The Freedom Writers Diary is tolerance. Tolerance is defined as the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. Gruwell’s students hated one another for no reason other than they thought they were supposed to because of gang histories and stereotypes. Gruwell taught them that they actually had more in common than they wanted to believe. Many of the students had lost a friend or loved one to senseless violence. Many of them had been abused or molested. Many of them were victims of substance abuse. Because the education system had deemed them “at risk,” Gruwell’s colleagues were unwilling to devote the time, energy, and attention to the students that would foster a positive, safe environment for them to not only tolerate their differences but to accept and even appreciate them. Enter Erin Gruwell, an idealistic young teacher who was not willing to take no for an answer from students, parents, or administrators. Tolerance is important to have in this world because without tolerance there can be no peace. The Freedom Writers Diary shows how the students learn tolerance. InDiary 36 the students writes “Why should I read books about people that don’t look like me? People that I’m not going to understand because they don’t understand me?’ I thought I was a smart-ass for asking her this questions. I thought to myself, ‘She’s not going to give me answer because this time I am right’. She looked up and said very calmly, ‘How can you say that? You haven’t even bothered to open the front cover. Try it, you never know. The book may come to life before your eyes’(Pg 71, Par. 1)”. This quote shows how immediately this teenager wanted to judge this book. She didn’t even know what it was about. The same diary entry states…